Bushcraft Adjacent

Wednesday afternoon I went down to the pond. Trail coming in was pretty easy to follow. Got off trail on the way back out. Much of it looked like this.



I want the trail to be easy to find, even in the dark. But don't want it showing where it comes out on the road. Maybe flag it once a few yards into the woods. But the trail may move if I find a better way.

I got the wrecked shooting house and all the cut wood moved at the new camp location. Two small trees to cut and I will be ready to hang tarps. The ridgeline will go from the tree behind the camera to the one in the foreground.

I need to get this broken mess down before doing much else. That is the tree behind the camera in the other shot.

The view from the campsite. Needs a little cleaning up, but will be epic one of these days. {no shortage of firewood either}

too larry said:

The view from the campsite. Needs a little cleaning up, but will be epic one of these days. {no shortage of firewood either}

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Is that your pond/lake in the background?

BarnBuster said:

Is that your pond/lake in the background?

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Yep. Sister and I had divided it when we split up the land a few years ago, but recently we swapped her part for some of my land of about the same acreage. So now all of it is mine and the wife's.

My wife has said she is done moving, but if my house ever blows away or burns down, I'm rebuilding at the pond. I am so done with road living. We moved a little house to the back of the pond in 1979, and I lived there when I came home from the Navy in '83. If you ever saw headlights, they were coming to see you, or lost as hell. I miss that amount of privacy.

too larry said:

Yep. Sister and I had divided it when we split up the land a few years ago, but recently we swapped her part for some of my land of about the same acreage. So now all of it is mine and the wife's.

My wife has said she is done moving, but if my house ever blows away or burns down, I'm rebuilding at the pond. I am so done with road living. We moved a little house to the back of the pond in 1979, and I lived there when I came home from the Navy in '83. If you ever saw headlights, they were coming to see you, or lost as hell. I miss that amount of privacy.

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Nice, are you able to maintain a fish population in there? I would imagine with your weather it's a challenge.

BarnBuster said:

Nice, are you able to maintain a fish population in there? I would imagine with your weather it's a challenge.

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Maybe 12-15 years ago it was dry. That has happened 2-3 times in my 58 years. About 7-8 years ago my cousin stocked it with fish he had caught. Bream, catfish and bass for the most part. It got real low 3-5 years ago, but never completely dry. So there should be good sized fish in it.

Back in the 70's we killed one ten pound bass with the gig. Caught lots of 6-8 pounders. When I lived there in the 80's it had gone dry and my uncle had restocked it with small bream when it came back. Later we stocked it with catfish and bass fingerlings. The bream were old enough they ate a ton of the fingerlings. That next summer we caught 35-40 bream that were so big their head and tails touched the sides of a five gallon bucket.

About every 20 years or so it will go dry, and not quite as often, it will get real high. The next land over has a wet weather pond, and I saw the two connected through the woods about 50 years ago. It would have to get 3 foot higher at least to do that.

too larry said:

Wednesday afternoon I went down to the pond. Trail coming in was pretty easy to follow. Got off trail on the way back out. Much of it looked like this.

View attachment 4331369

I want the trail to be easy to find, even in the dark. But don't want it showing where it comes out on the road. Maybe flag it once a few yards into the woods. But the trail may move if I find a better way.

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There is a little roadwalk involved in getting to the pond. I picked up 4 reflectors off the shoulder, and placed them at the first four turns on the trail. There is plenty more out there. Just need to pick them up.

I spent part of the last three days at the pond. I chainsawed as far as I could get around the edge of the pond, but had to skip around a section that was real woods, so bigger and thicker blowdowns. I did get around close enough that I could wade out and get the canoe. I left on my underwear, and thought that was going to be a mistake. But with manual support, I was able to get to it without going cod deep. Still had to wrestle it up on a downed tree to turn it over. That was a sight I'm glad no one saw.

I put my shoes down on the seat, then gloves and pants. Had to make one stop to pick up the chainsaw, then on to the camp.

Got the new tarp stretched. Moved my cot, chair and stool from the old camp. Lots more crap over there to be moved. Or not. Still lots of crap at my old, old pond camp.

I brought another load of stuff to the camp. Took the storage tub I had bought a month back, and the camp bedding from the river camp. Got a couple of old sleeping bags to use as padding. And a mattress tick that I tried to use as a sleeping bag liner without the sleeping bag. It's a right zip and I'm used to left zip. And it's a little too tight at the shoulders. I had to use a sheet for skeeter protection.



Didn't spend much time at the camp. I got in some good night hiking miles. Didn't make it until the moon rose though. After the full moon, moon rise moves back in a hurry.

I did get in about 25 minutes of pond time. The seat hurt my back, so I need to remember a lawn chair or something. I got one good strike. He got away in the grass. {I would have turned him loose anyway}

too larry said:

I brought another load of stuff to the camp. Took the storage tub I had bought a month back, and the camp bedding from the river camp. Got a couple of old sleeping bags to use as padding. And a mattress tick that I tried to use as a sleeping bag liner without the sleeping bag. It's a right zip and I'm used to left zip. And it's a little too tight at the shoulders. I had to use a sheet for skeeter protection.

View attachment 4338430

Didn't spend much time at the camp. I got in some good night hiking miles. Didn't make it until the moon rose though. After the full moon, moon rise moves back in a hurry.

I did get in about 25 minutes of pond time. The seat hurt my back, so I need to remember a lawn chair or something. I got one good strike. He got away in the grass. {I would have turned him loose anyway}

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If you know anyone doing the CT or CDT in colorado, tell them to wait or come prepared. Avalanches and spring snow are abundant this year. Trails are blocked we are working to clear. It will be a later opening than usual.

SSGrower said:

If you know anyone doing the CT or CDT in colorado, tell them to wait or come prepared. Avalanches and spring snow are abundant this year. Trails are blocked we are working to clear. It will be a later opening than usual.

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NIghtcrawler is doing the CDT this year. He was out early, but went back for Super Classy, his lady friend. He was going to run into snow problems at the rate he was going. Doing 200 miles over, and almost 3 weeks off trail, he should be good by the time he gets there. It's been a crazy year so far, so who knows what will happen.

I slipped him a little something something in his Christmas card, so I feel invested in this hike. Here is day 1.

I had four days off, but I was only able to spend three of the nights at the camp. Had some wind damage to the new tarp. I forgot my own helpful hints from my old bushcraft thread to always use weaker twine to tie off the tarp to the ridgeline. It ripped out a grommet and ripped the tarp at the corner. I was able to jury rig it.

I did a little prelim trail work on a new trail through Sister's land. This is an old fencerow {thus the big trees} that lines up with my trail to the pond camp. Will take a good deal more work before it is night hikeable.

I've been packing in a little of this and that each time I go to the camp. Added this seat pad to the cot. Still not great, but a little better.

I tried for a moonlight on the magnolias shot at the camp last night, but this was what I got.

A couple of new additions to the camp this week. Packed in a pillow from my stealth camp. Just about everything else in my pack had to be tied on to the outside, but I got it all there in one piece. Now I can use my small inflatable pillow for my knee pillow.



Looked under the tarp at my old pond camp. Rescued this bench. Daddy made it, so . . . . . . .

Got a good deal of road cleared. Not night hiking without a headlamp cleared, but you can walk from near the camp to almost out to the hardtop with only two sections with big trees to go around.

One of Sister's friends have a sawmill. I'll ask them if they need any oak logs before I rip into these. Hate to just cut them up for firewood, since I have a 20 year supply already.